A raid in March rescued more than 300 dogs from the misery of a puppy mill in Arkansas, setting them on the road to new lives. But not all of them got on the road. Some took to the air, thanks to a retired pilot from Colorado.

Dick Murray, who’s retired from United Airlines and the U.S. Marine Corps, says he still likes to fly his four-seat Piper Cherokee. “If I don’t get up every week or so, I get pretty crabby.”

Murray volunteers for Grace Flight of America, a Texas-based nonprofit that typically transports people who have to travel for medical treatment but can’t afford a commercial flight. At the request of some of its board members in Colorado, Grace Flight called for volunteers to fly dogs from the Logan County, Ark., puppy mill to the Dumb Friends League in Denver. Murray, a dog lover who lives between Denver and Colorado Springs, said he’d be glad to do it.